The 14-hydroxymorphinans, such as, oxycodone, naloxone, naltrexone, naltrexone methobromide, nalbuphine and nalmefene are important opiate derivatives due to their behavior as potent analgesics and/or narcotic antagonists. The most practical synthetic routes to the preparation of these pharmaceuticals have utilized the alkaloid, thebaine, as a starting material. Other important opiate derivatives such as hydrocodone and the ring-C bridged compounds buprenorphine and etorphine are also most practically prepared from thebaine.

In accordance with one conventional process, thebaine is oxidized to 14-hydroxycodeinone by use of m-chloroperbenzoic acid in an acetic acid/trifluoroacetic acid mixture or by a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and formic acid. 14-hydroxycodeinone is catalytically reduced to oxycodone. See Scheme 1. Oxycodone is a product sold for use as an analgesic and its production consumes large amounts of thebaine.

Oxycodone can be, in turn, O-demethylated with boron tribromide to yield oxymorphone. After blocking of the hydroxyl groups with a suitable blocking agent, such as, acetyl groups, the oxymorphone derivative can be reacted with cyanogen bromide in a von Braun demethylation to yield an N-cyanodihydronormorphinone derivative that is thereafter hydrolyzed to 14-hydroxydihydronormorphinone (noroxymorphone). Noroxymorphone can be readily converted to nal-compounds by N-alkylation with appropriate alkyl halide, or acylation with appropriate acyl halide or anhydride, followed by reduction. Another process, converts the oxycodone of the above process to noroxycodone by the von Braun N-demethylation followed by conversion to a 3-O-methyl-nal-compound using N-alkylation with an appropriate alkyl halide, or by alkylation with an appropriate alkyl halide, or acylation with appropriate acyl halide or anhydride, followed by reduction. The 3-O-methyl-nal-compound is converted to a nal-compound by O-demethylation.
A synthesis using thebaine to produce the ring-C bridged opiate, buprenorphine, is shown in Scheme 2.

Another synthesis using thebaine to produce the 14-hydroxymorphinan, naltrexone as representative of the nal-compounds, is shown in Scheme 3.

Another synthesis uses thebaine to produce hydrocodone as set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 3,812,132.
Although these syntheses are effective, the availability of thebaine is limited by its high cost. The high cost of thebaine contributes to the high cost of the 14-hydroxymorphinans derived from it.
One reason for the limited availability of thebaine, and its high cost, is that total synthesis is difficult. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,613,668 and 4,795,813 discuss the scarcity of thebaine and teach the total synthesis, or alternative synthesis, of the 14-hydroxymorphinans. Yet, the demand for thebaine remains.
A second reason for the limited availability of thebaine, and its high cost, is that the primary source of thebaine is extraction from the poppy plant, Papaver somniferum. Morphine is the major alkaloid that accumulates in capsules of Papaver somniferum. Thus, the supply of thebaine is to a great degree limited to some fraction of the demand for morphine.
Alkaloids are extracted from the poppy capsules of Papaver somniferum by two commercial methods. In one method, the immature capsule is cut and the latex collected from the wound. The air-dried latex is opium which, according to the Merck Index, 11th edition, contains alkaloids in the amounts shown in Table I. In a second method, the mature poppy capsules and the poppy capsule stems are collected, and threshed to remove the seeds and form a straw. When necessary, the straw is dried to a water content below 16%. Solvent or water extraction is employed to remove the alkaloids from the straw. For the varieties of Papaver somniferum normally grown, the straw, on a dry basis, contains alkaloids in the amounts shown in Table 1.
TABLE 1opiumstrawmorphine, %10-161-3codeine, %0.8-2.50.05-0.3 oripavine, % 0-0.1  0-0.05thebaine, %0.5-2 0.15-0.65
As can be seen, the yield of thebaine and oripavine is confounded with that of other alkaloids. A poppy producing predominantly thebaine, e.g., as 90% or more of the total alkaloids, would enable a simpler extraction/purification process, resulting in higher yields, better quality and throughput and lower costs.
Where solvent or water or super critical fluid, such as CO2, extraction is employed to remove the alkaloids from the straw, such method, as practiced, involves the production of “Concentrate of Poppy Straw”. Concentrate of Poppy Straw (or “CPS”) is described as “The material arising when poppy straw has entered into a process for the concentration of its alkaloids, when such material is made available in trade,” (Multilingual dictionary of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances under international control, United Nations, N.Y., 1983). Not inconsistent with the foregoing description, Concentrate of Poppy Straw is described as “the crude extract of poppy straw in either liquid, solid or powder form which contains the phenanthrene alkaloids of the opium poppy,” 45 U. S. Federal Register 77466, Nov. 24, 1980. When in liquid form, the liquid is preferably concentrated before entering into commerce. The generally preferred Concentrate of Poppy Straw is the powder form which results from removing the solvent or water following extraction of the poppy straw. According to the United Nations publication “Narcotic Drugs: Estimated World Requirements for 2007; Statistics for 2005 (E/INCB/2006/2)”, Concentrate of Poppy Straw is the dried residue obtained through the extraction of alkaloids from poppy straw. Until the second half of the 1990s, only concentrate of poppy straw containing morphine as the main alkaloid was manufactured. Since then, concentrate of poppy straw containing mainly thebaine or oripavine has started to be manufactured.
More recently, first et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 6,067,749 (the “'749 Patent”), U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,376,221 and 6,723,894, disclosed an improved poppy straw of a stably reproducing Papaver somniferum for the extraction of thebaine and/or oripavine (the “Norman” poppy), the threshed straw having thebaine and oripavine constituting about 50% by weight or greater of the alkaloid combination consisting of morphine, codeine, thebaine and oripavine. The Norman poppy straw constituted 1.68% thebaine, 0.74% oripavine, 0.05% codeine and no morphine as a percent by weight of the dry straw. (See, column 15, table III of the '749 Patent). While this alleviated the limited availability and high cost of thebaine to some extent, the problem of producing oripavine concurrently with thebaine contributed significantly to the cost of producing thebaine.
For many years, the perennial poppy Papaver bracteatum has been proposed as a source of thebaine. Thebaine is the predominant alkaloid in this species, and in selected strains it can be as high as 98% of the total alkaloids (Palevitch, D and Levy, A 1992 Acta Horticulturae 306, 33-52). Thebaine is present in the roots as well as capsules. Generally two years of growth would be required to obtain a good yield of both roots and capsules. Papaver bracteatum does not alleviate the problem of limited availability and high cost of thebaine because of its slow growth, low capsule yield and the problems with harvesting and processing roots.